I find myself questioning the way I do things and how I live pretty often. I think that, especially after transitioning, it's been a topic that is on my mind regularly enough for it to negatively impact my self worth...or at least contributing to a slow yet consistent degradation of how I view myself. It's really difficult to overcome, especially in this society where everything we see is a propped-up caricature of what our lives actually are. Filters hiding our flaws, air brushes distorting our bodies, entire galleries devoted to the photogenically and aesthetically pleasing so that we can show only the best of ourselves.

The other day I was talking with one of my best friends and he was telling me about how some of his anxieties affected him. We were meeting some mutual online friends in person for the first time and we were both going into it a bit nervous. I asked how he was holding up after we had parted from them and he mentioned some of his anxiousness stemmed from feelings of being insecure in not being very talkative. It turned out he had the same fear I had- that he would be seen as an uninteresting and boring person. Hearing him say that immediately helped me feel better because he is someone I highly respect and it felt really soothing to hear him admit to that.

I think that even though I want LiA to be humorous and to bring a smile and a laugh to people, I also want there to be things like this comic and this blog that are just more authentically me. I am a pensive, anxious person in real life, and humor is my coping mechanism. In the end, I think that sometimes the best way to combat these feelings is just to know we aren't alone and I hope to contribute to that voice by creating something for those who might need it something to latch onto.